Girdwood Public Safety Advisory Committee

Girdwood Public Safety Advisory Committee August 16, 2016 Minutes Final

What: Special Meeting of the Public Safety Advisory Committee Where: Girdwood Community Center Library, 250 Egloff Drive Date: Wednesday, August 16, 2016 Time: 7:00 pm

Call to order, Michelle Weston, Chair Attending are: Will Day, Mandy Hawes, Mike Edgington, Michelle Weston Mike Opalka is out of state.

Old Business: Discussion of Draft Contract that has been drafted by Whittier Attorney Holley Wells and Municipal Attorney Bill Falsey. Input received from Alyeska Attorneys Randall Call, Alyeska In-house council and Dick Rosston, Dorsey & Whitney.

Redline version provided by Alyeska, and has been forwarded to MOA. Concern regarding unclear points in contract. Alyeska is concerned with making the best contract possible with Whittier. Troopers attending meeting on 8.15.16 only committed to status quo, and did not meet community interest in community policing and change of hours to match hours of community need.

Goal of meeting is to provide advisory edits to Bill Falsey with CC to Sam Daniel. Michelle Weston will forward recommendations to them as soon as possible after meeting has concluded.

Contract draft seems thin and missing specifics Group is disappointed that input provided in original matrix has not been incorporated in draft. Contract is vague. Contract looks a lot like the contract that is currently being re-written between AFD and GVFD.

Typos Various typos throughout the document, including cost of service statement.

Communication 911 system has not been addressed on contract a separate concern is the radio communications. Police in Girdwood will need to use both ALMR (Alaska Land Mobile Radio), which works state-wide (AST uses this) and the radio system that AFD/APD uses. Although this was brought up prior to Forest Fair contract, there was no direct radio system during Forest Fair. Communication relied on discussion through dispatcher.

Girdwood Fire Dept will be moving to encrypted system as part of MOA. If radios are not able to be programmed, then they’ll need to carry 2. Move this to Appendix B: Phone system and Radio communications implementation plan Whittier plan is to tie in to APD system, however radios are not compatible and encryption will further complicate this.

Possible fee from APD to use 911 system

Girdwood Public Safety Advisory Committee is a sub-committee to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors Agendas and minutes are available on line: http://www.muni.org/gbos

1 Contract should require: WPD develop, implement, and maintain communication systems pursuant to fixed cost in agreement. APD remain Primary PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) for Girdwood.

Contractual failure: Currently if MOA cancels contract, Girdwood pays full amount to Whittier. Suggest changing language to state that if MOA cancels contract without cause and effort to reconcile, Girdwood would pay Whittier.

Flat Rate for Budget $620,000 Advisory committee requires annual budget. Without budget, PSAC does not recommend signing contract. Flat rate came up from original request from GBOS asking what it would cost to have police services, necessary to see back-up for this flat rate prior to signing contract in order to meet fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers.

Require 3 year budget to be attached to contract, with annual review: Capital and Operating (Labor/Non-labor) Budgets that is tied to fixed 3-year contract. Fund part-time accounting staff member for admin support, perhaps a consultant.

Comments on contract need to be clearly presented to GBOS by PSAC If required changes aren’t made, Michelle states that PSAC will need to address Assembly and have it pulled from consent agenda.

Should there be mechanism to increase flat rate fee? Group decides that this is not their concern.

Control of Renewal Process: Identify process for multi-year contract with review and renewal process.

Scope of Work: Detail approximate number of hours of service Changing from part-time to full-time may have PERS requirement. Schofield has said that this has been incorporated in to costs, but this isn’t clear in budget.

There will be some sort of IGC (intergovernmental charge) fee within the MOA to cover contract and payment costs. What other costs will be charged to Girdwood Service Area that fall outside of Whittier contract.

Required attendance of WPD at PSAC meeting providing stats and report, PSAC provides report to GBOS. Enforce state statutes with the PSAC to create a community policing model (which will help with issues with mental instability).

Mental Illness issues: API cannot hold people. Example of situation where AST has refused to go to scene and cannot be held liable for resulting situations. Man who was walking in highway. Man who fell from ceiling in Alyeska Resort. Skate park situations with John Barker.

Mechanism for mutual consent: Contract currently states 30 day cancellation notification for cause. This should change to 60 days. Clarify that cancellation would occur through city managers.

Major Crime Investigation: Monegan has stated that AST is systematically removing themselves from service of boroughs. No response has been received to Bill Falsey’s letter requesting clarification on AST service investigating Major Crimes.

Not many towns have capacity to handle this element of service.

2 Mutual Aid: PSAC may need to set up mutual aid agreements in case volume of calls or type of calls is more than WPD can respond to. This item is something to be addressed, but could be included in contract as “WPD has the power to enter in to Mutual Aid Agreements”

Annual review of budget Year End Report reconciled to budget Itemized reports given annually from Roads, parks and rec. However this is a contract, so return reporting requirement would be different Group seeks transparency in contracting.

Recommend strike from contract ??? which is protecting MOA but not Girdwood.

Concern that contract becoming too specific may compromise the service and undermine relationship

Sworn Officers vs Certified Officers No officers who haven’t successfully completed Alaska Academy or academy elsewhere plus 2 week AK academy. Confusion that should be clarified by Alaska Police Standards Council. Concern that officers can be sworn in and then attend academy after starting work as a Whittier Police Officer.

This needs to be addressed in contract language.

Hours of Service: Define number of hours/week physically present.

Included elements within contract: Clarify who is paying for prisoner transport, etc. This section of contract has various statement but lack clarification on who is paying for what.

Re-statement of concern about what will happen if all officers are needed in Whittier, leaving Girdwood without police services during a call.

Acts of God, etc: This describes issues that are exactly what police do and should be removed from contract. Chief Day states concern about Force Majeure for riots. Not acceptable for police to opt out of this responsibility.

Eventually AST staffing and lack of response will be decided in courts, similar to DOT payment as a result of icefall on woman on Seward Highway.

Wrap Up Overall, group is strongly concerned that the contract needs to address issues as outlined within the minutes. If items are not resolved contractually and these concerns are not addressed to their satisfaction, Public Safety Advisory Committee will not recommend that GBOS signs public safety contract with Whittier.

Group concerned that GBOS did not request Task Force recommendation on Sole source contracting with Whittier. Group agrees that they should listen to meetings in April/May to see if there was designation to work with Whittier.

Meeting adjourn 10:05PM